


Colour me red

by smallorbits



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 23:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10559542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallorbits/pseuds/smallorbits
Summary: Chanyeol wasn't supposed to discover his soulmate at his own wedding.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i think there was a soulmates prompts tumblr post about this and i did a tweet fic in ? april 2016 ? but i want to revive it so here we are.

Chanyeol wears a velvet red tuxedo for his wedding.

Kyungsoo calls it a fashion abomination, but Chanyeol loves his tux. He knows he looks good in any sort of suit (bless Mama Park for these legs) and choosing the most obnoxious suit he could find is like a big fuck you to the universe. Chanyeol isn't one for traditions, especially not when it comes to weddings.

Their wedding isn't _really_ a wedding since they can't be recognised by the government but to Chanyeol, it's as real as it can be. There's no minister to officiate the wedding, no wedding vows to recite. There's just Chanyeol and Kyungsoo with a small gathering of friends and family, the ones that still stuck around after it became clear that the two of them were serious.

(Kyungsoo's dad refused to attend, saying it was against nature, against the _law_. A person is intended to marry only his or her soulmate and no one else. Chanyeol can tell his own parents are being twice as supportive to try to make it up to Kyungsoo and he really appreciates his parents right now.)

 

 

 

Still, Chanyeol thinks as he looks around his small garden not-wedding, this is _perfect_.

Around them, the staff dart their eyes down to their wrists, noting the obvious lack of a glowing red mark, but Chanyeol has grown to see the soulmates tattoos as a pair of handcuffs instead. Loving Kyungsoo like this, of his own free will, is all he ever wants.

They talked about this for years, careful conversations full of tears and fierce hope, and both agree that what they felt for each other is real, soulmates or not. Kyungsoo seems to share the same sentiments and laces their hands together, shuffling closer to Chanyeol until he practically melts into Chanyeol's side. The effect on Chanyeol is instantaneous and he feels his nervous heart patter into a calmer beat.

This is it; they’re getting married.

Chanyeol brings their hands up to his lips and gives the back of Kyungsoo's hand a kiss, making Kyungsoo's eyes crinkle up in laughter. "I love you, husband," Chanyeol says, trying out the term on his tongue. It sends a thrill down his spine and after so many years of trying and talking and confusion, this all feels a little surreal.

"I love you too, you doofus," Kyungsoo mumbles back, never one for terms of endearment. Chanyeol can see how happy he is though from the way Kyungsoo smiles wide and unabashed.

Filled with a sudden rush of emotions, Chanyeol feels his eye prickle with tears but he can't ruin the eyeliner Baekhyun so painstakingly helped him to apply. Baekhyun had chosen a waterproof eyeliner on purpose because Chanyeol is known to be a crybaby, but Chanyeol would rather not test out the strength of his claims. He reaches out to tap a waiter passing by. "Sorry, could you please pass me a napk-"

The clang of the metal tray as it drops from the waiter's hands draws everyone's eyes to them. Chanyeol stares down at his wrist in growing horror, trying to will the little thin threads snaking around his wrist away, but even in the strong sunlight, the red tattoo glows bright.

The waiter is wide eyed and stricken, clutching his own wrist. From between his fingers, pulses of light dance in the same rhythm of Chanyeol's thundering heart.

Guess the universe said fuck you back.

 

 

Jongin- his name is Jongin. Tall and scrawny with soft sleepy features, a little more boy than man, he is twenty two years old.

Chanyeol met Kyungsoo when they were both twenty two. They were in the music club of their university and had to work together for a school festival performance. Chanyeol played the guitar for Kyungsoo’s vocal solo and they had to spend some time together to sync up and rehearse. Long nights of rehearsals turned into casual flirting and sneaky touches, and quickly developed into burning rushes and a desperate need to be together, always, forever.

In the end, their feelings won over and they’ve been together since. Five years later, Chanyeol can barely remember how twenty two felt, but the slow thrumming of a foreign emotion in the corner of his heart, Jongin's troubled thoughts leaking into Chanyeol's own mind, reminds him that this is how twenty two feels.

Jongin huddles on the couch of Chanyeol and Kyungsoo's shared apartment, his legs pulled up to his chest.

The soul bond is strengthening by the minute, Jongin's panic increasingly loud in Chanyeol's head and Chanyeol almost wants to lash out at Jongin, yell at him for ruining everything. He and Kyungsoo were supposed to live their lives together happily ever after.

Chanyeol wasn't supposed to discover his soulmate at his own wedding.

Jongin flinches, watery eyes looking up at Chanyeol and Chanyeol belatedly remembers that Jongin can feel Chanyeol's emotions too. _Good_ , Chanyeol thinks spitefully, ignoring how all of this is in no way Jongin’s fault. None of them can control the bonds, not even the government.

No one knows how the bonds are formed. For as long as time was recorded, the threads joined two souls, sometimes as friends with matching yellow, sometimes as the pink glow of parent and child, sometimes as the burning, red passion of lovers. Chanyeol and Jongin’s matching red threads though, were undoubtedly that of lovers.

Chanyeol knows that while rare, there are people who lived their whole lives without forming a soulmate bond. Soulmates bonds usually form by 25 and Chanyeol has been growing hopeful each year that he might just be, depending on who’s asking, one of the lucky ones.

After all, there have been no cases of a successful soulmate rejection ever recorded.

 

 

 

Ever since they came back, Kyungsoo has been locked in their room. He won't come out or talk to him and Chanyeol doesn't know what to do.

He sits on the opposite ends of the couch with Jongin, as far as their bond allows him to, looking at anywhere else but at Jongin.

He wants to look at Jongin, should be drinking in the man that destiny has chosen, but even looking makes him feel like he’s betraying Kyungsoo. He may not be soul bonded with Kyungsoo but he feels Kyungsoo’s pain acutely. They were so stubbornly in love that all these years of talking about whether they should be together without a soulmate bond and they didn't even bring up the possibility of finding a soul mate other than each other.

Finally, Chanyeol allows himself a glimpse of his soulmate to soothe his bond, only to startle when he finds Jongin’s eyes already fixed on him.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Jongin whispers, voice sounding far too loud in the silent room.   
  
He's so... young. A larger part of Chanyeol just wants to hold Jongin close, breathe in his scent and satisfy the call in his soul. The soul bond is reaching for Jongin, flames of desire and need flickering towards the young man and it takes all of Chanyeol’s concentration to keep the instinct at bay.  
  
Chanyeol's hand raises of its own will, reaching out to Jongin and Jongin instinctively moves his head closer to the touch even as his body shrinks back.  
  
Chanyeol stops himself just in time and runs his hand through his hair. "Look, Jongin?” He tries to ignore the way Jongin visibly brightens when Chanyeol says his name. “We can talk this through."

We can figure it out.   
  
“Can I stay here tonight?”

Soulmates cannot be separated for the first 48 hours because the soul bond needs time to grow. Forced separation would cause great pain, even in some cases, death. They both know this, and yet Jongin feels the need to ask and a rejection lies on the tip of Chanyeol’s tongue.

But Jongin isn’t at fault. He needs to remember this.

“You can take the couch.”

 

 

 

That night, Chanyeol holds Kyungsoo in their room as Kyungsoo cries.

Chanyeol tried to apologise, but Kyungsoo cut him off before he could say anything and buried himself in Chanyeol’s arms instead, muffling his sobs in Chanyeol’s shirt.

Chanyeol does not let a single tear fall.

He can feel his soul bond itching to join Jongin but he forces himself to ignore Jongin's misery flooding his blood and focuses on peppering kisses in Kyungsoo's hair and reassuring him that it'll change nothing.

 

 

  
  
It changes everything.


End file.
